Marco Polo: Story, Cast and Series Facts

Story and premise

First broadcast in 1982, this Emmy award winning epic adventure cost a staggering ten million dollars and featured an all-star, Oscar winning cast. Filmed on location in Italy, Morocco, Nepal and China this lavish mini-series was the first Western production to film in China after WWII and took over thirteen months to complete. An epic in every sense of the word. Born in Venice in 1254, Marco Polo was just 17 when he set off with his father and uncle to travel the Silk Road to China. Their adventurous journey through Asia, which lasted three and half years, took them through uncharted territory and went down in history as one of the greatest exploratory journeys of all time. Marco then spent 17 years in Peking as the guest of the Great Khan, winning the trust and respect of the Emperor for whom he carried out various diplomatic missions. Marco took great care to understand and record the culture, language, traditions and customs of the people he met during his long travels and as a result became one of histories legendary explorers.

Series details

• Title: Marco Polo
• Format: Scripted
• Language: English
• Genres: Drama, Adventure, History
• Premiere date: 1982-12-05
• Final broadcast date listed: 1983-01-23
• Status in TVmaze: Ended
• Network listed by TVmaze: NBC
• Network country: United States
• Typical episode runtime: 50 minutes
• TVMaze ID: 8243
• IMDb ID: tt0083446
• TVDB ID: 81625

Cast and credited roles

• Burt Lancaster — Teobaldo Visconti
• Denholm Elliott — Niccolo Polo
• F. Murray Abraham — Jacopo
• Ian McShane — Ali Ben Yussouf
• Ken Marshall — Marco Polo
• Leonard Nimoy — Achmed
• Mario Adorf — Giovanni
• Tony Vogel — Matteo Polo
• Anne Bancroft — Marco's Mother
• Riccardo Cucciolla — Uncle Zane
• Tony Lo Bianco — Brother Nicholas

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

• Season 1: premiered 1982-12-05; final listed air date 1983-01-23; episode order: 8.

Source and licence

Adapted from Marco Polo on TVmaze. The synopsis is reproduced as plain text; catalogue facts, cast and season records are selected and reformatted. This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, following the TVmaze API licence. Network and web-channel credits identify the service listed in this source; they do not establish current streaming availability.